2.3 Promoting Innovation and the Security of the Internet

Publisher: Information Technology Industry Council (ITI)

We strongly support the protection of the foundation of AI, including source code, proprietary algorithms, and other intellectual property. To this end, we believe governments should avoid requiring companies to transfer or provide access to technology, source code, algorithms, or encryption keys as conditions for doing business. We support the use of all available tools, including trade agreements, to achieve these ends.

Related Principles

For cognitive systems to fulfill their world changing potential, it is vital that people have confidence in their recommendations, judgments and uses. Therefore, the IBM company will make clear:
When and for what purposes AI is being applied in the cognitive solutions we develop and deploy.
The major sources of data and expertise that inform the insights of cognitive solutions, as well as the methods used to train those systems and solutions.
The principle that clients own their own business models and intellectual property and that they can use AI and cognitive systems to enhance the advantages they have built, often through years of experience. We will work with our clients to protect their data and insights, and will encourage our clients, partners and industry colleagues to adopt similar practices.

Just like technologies that have come before it, AI depends on strong cybersecurity and privacy provisions. We encourage governments to use strong, globally accepted and deployed cryptography and other security standards that enable trust and interoperability. We also promote voluntary information sharing on cyberattacks or hacks to better enable consumer protection. The tech sector incorporates strong security features into our products and services to advance trust, including using published algorithms as our default cryptography approach as they have the greatest trust among global stakeholders, and limiting access to encryption keys. Data and cybersecurity are integral to the success of AI. We believe for AI to flourish, users must trust that their personal and sensitive data is protected and handled appropriately. AI systems should use tools, including anonymized data, de identification, or aggregation to protect personally identifiable information whenever possible.

Published by: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), the Government of Japan in AI R&D Principles

Developers should pay attention to the interconnectivity and interoperability of AI systems.
[Comment]
Developers should give consideration to the interconnectivity and interoperability between the AI systems that they have developed and other AI systems, etc. with consideration of the diversity of AI systems so that: (a) the benefits of AI systems should increase through the sound progress of AI networking; and that (b) multiple developers’ efforts to control the risks should be coordinated well and operate effectively. For this, developers should pay attention to the followings:
• To make efforts to cooperate to share relevant information which is effective in ensuring interconnectivity and interoperability.
• To make efforts to develop AI systems conforming to international standards, if any.
• To make efforts to address the standardization of data formats and the openness of interfaces and protocols including application programming interface (API).
• To pay attention to risks of unintended events as a result of the interconnection or interoperations between AI systems that they have developed and other AI systems, etc.
• To make efforts to promote open and fair treatment of license agreements for and their conditions of intellectual property rights, such as standard essential patents, contributing to ensuring the interconnectivity and interoperability between AI systems and other AI systems, etc., while taking into consideration the balance between the protection and the utilization with respect to intellectual property related to the development of AI.
[Note]
The interoperability and interconnectivity in this context expects that AI systems which developers have developed can be connected to information and communication networks, thereby can operate with other AI systems, etc. in mutually and appropriately harmonized manners.

Published by: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), the Government of Japan in AI R&D Principles

Developers should pay attention to the security of AI systems.
[Comment]
In addition to respecting international guidelines on security such as “OECD Guidelines for the Security of Information Systems and Networks,” it is encouraged that developers pay attention to the followings, with consideration of the possibility that AI systems might change their outputs or programs as a result of learning or other methods:
● To pay attention, as necessary, to the reliability (that is, whether the operations are performed as intended and not steered by unauthorized third parties) and robustness (that is, tolerance to physical attacks and accidents) of AI systems, in addition to: (a) confidentiality; (b) integrity; and (c) availability of information that are usually required for ensuring the information security of AI systems.
● To make efforts to conduct verification and validation in advance in order to assess and control the risks related to the security of AI systems.
● To make efforts to take measures to maintain the security to the extent possible in light of the characteristics of the technologies to be adopted throughout the process of the development of AI systems (“security by design”).

Published by: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), the Government of Japan in AI R&D Principles

Developers should make efforts to fulfill their accountability to stakeholders, including AI systems’ users.
[Comment]
Developers are expected to fulfill their accountability for AI systems they have developed to gain users’ trust in AI systems.
Specifically, it is encouraged that developers make efforts to provide users with the information that can help their choice and utilization of AI systems. In addition, in order to improve the acceptance of AI systems by the society including users, it is also encouraged that, taking into account the R&D principles (1) to (8) set forth in the Guidelines, developers make efforts: (a) to provide users et al. with both information and explanations about the technical characteristics of the AI systems they have developed; and (b) to gain active involvement of stakeholders (such as their feedback) in such manners as to hear various views through dialogues with diverse stakeholders.
Moreover, it is advisable that developers make efforts to share the information and cooperate with providers et al. who offer services with the AI systems they have developed on their own.